COMMENTS
So what's the "marketing takeaway" as @MVolpe would say? Should we divert more resources to social media and focus less on search because it has a higher conversion rate?
What are the most effective ways to convert consumers using social media, I'd like to see a blog article (or full-blown webinar) on that!
Feel free to tweet me your thoughts <a href="http://www.twitter.com/mallikarjunan>on Twitter
I hear you get a buff for closing quotes when doing HTML ;) that link goes to
my twitter obviously.
Social Media can be more important than organic Google searches? As a Motorola Six-Sigma black belt and Inbound Marketing Certified Professional, I'm happy you presented supporting data for your conclusions. Good presentation.
Randy
How about giving us this data for top management?
People searching have less of a relationship with you than those reading your blog or social media posts. So it makes sense you'd have more leads from those that know you better - Sales 101. But those searching might sign up for your blog, & then later become a lead. It all seems important to me.
Interesting. I think the trick in inbound marketing - as in life - is still balancing everything and keeping on top of everything. My industry's graph falls in (probably) between the construction and the law firms. Those industries can't deny that they still get more than 50% from search, but I also consider some of that effort - at least on our part - dual in that a lot of the work I do to optimize for search engines generates new content, which helps with the "other" category because it promotes inbound linking. It is also interesting, after seeing this post, to think about how much time I spend on each of these categories. I was surprised/pleased to see that I apparently allocate my time well. I spend more than 50% of my time on optimizing the site for search and maybe 15% of my time working (beyond the automatic feed to the company blog) on content/presence in social media, for example...Thanks, Hubspot, for keeing me on track!
I agree with Jason in that you can’t move too far away from the search as it can help potential customers find you. But, you’re right. It’s not the Holy Grail of marketing. Once you get them to the website, regardless of whether it was through search or social media, you have to keep them there by optimizing the experience for your audience and not just the search engines.
All the best!
Melissa
Interesting - and not surprising.
I envy HubSpot's unique ability to aggregate this sort of data and am grateful you are willing to share it -- along with your analysis.
It would be VERY INTERESTING to see this data samples and reported monthly...and view the trend.
Pretty please, with sugar on top.
Since social media and blogging can also improve your search rankings, it seems reasonable to invest in social media, however unscientific the study. But a client just yesterday said to me, in response to my suggestion that he consider social media, "It sounds like you could put in a lot of time without much payoff."
Sharing the figures helps with changing these perceptions. Thanks!
Hi Jon - thanks for the feedback. We're definitely looking in to doing more data-based blog posts in the future and will consider showing trends over time for the most popular stats.
i most cases above Search accounted for at least 50% of traffic... right?
having contributed to 330% on client's social media presence..
and since we did this via search....
i think you are telling half the story.
I guess I'm not sure where the separation is. A user searches for keywords, hits the blog and then visits the site, where did it originate? Unless I'm missing something (it's entirely possible), this "data" seems to have redundant data where some searches overlay social media.
Please correct me!
Solid gold information from a fire hose. Hubspot is fantastic!
Hi Dale, We're tracking how the visitor originally arrived at the site. Your example: "A user searches for keywords, hits the blog and then visits the site" is a good one. If the blog is part of the main site, then the original referrer would be the search engines. If the blog is separate from the site, then the original referrer would be the blog. In short the referrer is how the visitor found the site on their first visit.
Hi Michelle,
I see where the technical connection is made and it makes sense. However, your example kind of proves my point that a good standalone blog will show up in the search engines and supply visitors so it is a stretch to separate Search Engines from Social Media as independent sources.
I agree that social media and blogs help buisnesses. But I also believe in SEO, I think that what the people at
www.communitybuilderpromotions.com is great going to be helpful for small and large buisnesses everywhere.